kurtwombat's reviews
880 reviews

Palimpsest: A History of the Written Word by Matthew Battles

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.
Found the writing style precious and annoying.
Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher

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challenging funny informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I have often wondered what it must be like to sing—to let loose a voice that moves others. To not just sing along but cast your voice alone upon the air unsupported to fly and land on it’s own. Maybe it is like flying. Just you--clear of obstacles and free of weight, all directions and distances available and possible. Beautiful. That’s how I feel reading F. Scott Fitzgerald. He writes so beautifully, his sentences often sing and seem to fly. There are times where I have sat startled by his prose. He is often romanticized as a writer partly because of this skill, but also because of the flapper age he was immersed in and the age of his death—44. (And then there’s Zelda). More famous now for his novels, it was short stories that made his living. They aren’t as well remembered but still show that Fitzgerald could write but also write whatever he wanted. I started this thinking it would be one flapper tale after another. The ease and fashion of the roaring 20’s does permeate much of this collection, but there is more to see. He touches on fantasy (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button),  adventure (The Diamond as Big as the Ritz), mock playwriting (Mr. Icky), being Henry James (The Lees of Happiness) and fun with hillbillies (Jemina, the Mountain Girl) all with equal skill. Had he been able to fly in real life, free of money worries, worry over Zelda’s decline in health and the scourge of alcohol, who knows what he might have produced. But that always begs the question, how much did he produce because of enduring those liabilities. All that being said, this is obviously worth a look—not everything ages well (Mr Icky & Porcelain and Pink). My favorites are probably O Russet Witch & The Camel’s Back but there is plenty to enjoy.
 
 
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

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emotional funny inspiring reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 
I have wanted to read this for 40 years. It was published while I was in college and was very buzzed about—I remember seeing it everywhere but it never popped up in my syllabus (and syllabus is a word I haven’t thought of in 40 years—in fact, just saying it out loud vexes me).  Natural to build up some expectation in that time—and natural to experience a modest let down—however I was delighted the whole time. The hubbub when it came out was that it opened a door to Hispanic culture. A culture rarely referenced in American Literature, and certainly not from a female perspective. This book helped the pulse of Hispanic life beat on the page for the first time. Not really a novel and not really a collection of short stories, Cisneros uses brief snapshots or impressions to vividly put together a story. Each part is a well-crafted little darling. Adolescent Esperanza narrates her life in working class Chicago with just the right details about her small adventures to create a vivid and embracing tapestry. Small revelations relate to big truths—the neighborhood is the world. Designed so you can drop in anywhere and read randomly but there is a feeling by the end that Esperanza has matured and we see many of the forces that have shaped her.

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

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The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

 
This staggering work seeks to reset our understanding of slavery and its lingering aftermath—to take our limited view of history and expand it dramatically—like an empty balloon suddenly filled. It does so with a collection of essays that approach our American history and our American present from many different angles—political, economic, geographic, psychological, sociological etc. The essays are bridged by recollections and poetry and short fiction that act as palate cleansers before the plunge into the next demanding chapter.  I listened to the 18+ hour audiobook and enjoyed the different voices—especially when the bridges were performed. The spoken narration drew me out of myself and I believe I was more receptive to the information. The bridges reaffirmed what the chapters had to say or prefaced what was to come.  The essays themselves vary in quality and impact but as a collection 1619 packs quite a wallop—alternately inspiring outrage and sadness but always inspiring. I understand the desire to add this to school curriculums—and even to create entire courses around it (I think in some form or another it should be in every school until our educational system improves enough to grow beyond it)—but I would encourage close monitoring for younger readers. Some of this material, making up the fabric of our nation, covers the worst of what humanity is capable—horrific  brutality the thread of which still runs through today.  Indeed much of the impact comes from blending the intimate with the big picture—looking into the eyes of history. I see this book as kind of a solution guide. I knew there was a puzzle and I could see some of the pieces and suspected there were others but I had no idea how many or how they all fit together. If you doubt the need for such a book, take a look at a few of the one star reviews—filled with the kind of negative passion born of ignorance and fear. 
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Walking the Black Cat by Charles Simic

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dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

From the first words, I felt on familiar ground—a place synthesized from my love of noir films, Paul Auster novels and driving at night with nowhere to be. Tight visual language and deceptively simple scenes create images that impact and linger. Curious to read more to see if this is the street Simic lives on or if he was just visiting. I love this as if I had lived my life to read it. (Maybe a bit overblown—but have I got your attention?)
Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss

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funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

Happily read a bunch of Dr. Seuss decades ago and read this now in support of books being banned currently at many local libraries and as a comeuppance to anyone historically who has sought to do the same. Proudly borrowed from our local library. Banned because it was thought to be too violent and might inspire children to hurt themselves or others. Settle down --it's a delightful romp.
Poor Things by Alasdair Gray

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challenging dark funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

 
My estimation of this novel rose and fell several times during my reading. I mostly enjoyed bobbing and weaving my way through this Victorian novel spoof pastiche of different unreliable narrators in different styles, formats and genres but there were a few points of tedium. The letters from abroad format went on a little too long and the third section of the novel delivered as bits of reporting were a tad too dry (more interesting when I finally realized what the point of it was). But the central idea is genius—that in order to tell the story of a smart, independent, self-actualized woman (in Victorian Scotland or even today) the story has to be approached as science fiction. Such a woman has to be the Frankenstein like creation of a man—she couldn’t come naturally by those qualities. That is the first part (maybe ¾ of the novel). Second part is the real female character telling her side—much more realistic but still skewed by her perspective. And the last part is a kind of reckoning of the two—dispatches from the time create a foundation of reality. Feels old and new at the same time—don’t settle in it will change directions. Lays waste to men as a gender—rightfully so. Presents them as foolish and temperamental and disposable just as women in literature were/are often portrayed. 
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The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I by Douglas Brunt

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dark informative mysterious slow-paced

3.5

 
The central tease of this book is the disappearance of Rudolf Diesel (inventor of the diesel engine) as referenced in the title and the subtitle. For the vast majority of the book that is the only sniff of mystery to be had. Instead we are treated to a series of articles about Diesel and the history he was born into with little hope for a cohesive narrative. The articles are informative and interesting but slow going because they don’t feel essential to the story. It was like winning a free vacation and then finding out you must sit through a sales meeting every day. Portions of each article could have been woven into a nice narrative—easily 100 pages could be lost from the book overall with little downside. The book does contain two essential surprises first that Diesel was actually a person (not having thought about it assumed it was a German mechanical term). And a rather fascinating person apparently retaining a humanity rare among those at his level of success. The second, that I would find essentially the biography of a mechanical device so interesting—more so than most of the component parts of this book. Dropping the mystery from the title and simply referencing the amazing impact the diesel engine had on history would have been a better play—making war a global event, becoming a driving force in international politics and changing the everyday life of most people living on the planet should have been interesting enough. (Amazing stuff on its own but I understand the mystery part drives sale.) Yet we have to wade thru long biographical digressions on John D. Rockefeller, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Adolphus Busch. All fascinating figures but lamentable hurdles here. The mystery is finally addressed near the end of the book—and some interesting thoughts are churned up—well worth the wait for the revelation but I found the author’s transition from supposition to fact disquieting. Likely is not the same as fact.